Optimalon Software Delivers Cost Savings for Construction Industry

KITCHENER, Ontario, March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Optimalon Software announced the release of a new product, 1DCutX, an extension for Microsoft Excel aimed at dramatically reducing construction materials waste incurred from cutting operations.

Several types of construction materials, like pipes, studs, beams, drywalls, etc., come in standard sizes. Such materials get cut by construction companies and individual contractors. However, the efficient cutting is not trivial. There are hundreds, if not thousands of different ways (so-called "layouts") to cut smaller pieces from big ones.

Each layout yields different material utilization and the amount of waste. Usually, the difference in the material utilization between the most obvious and the most optimized layouts is 10 - 20 percent. In terms of the efficiency and the productivity, this difference can amount to tens of thousands of dollars saved on construction materials and labor. Finding the most optimized cutting layout is a so-called "length cutting optimization" problem and it has been intensively studied for decades by scientists.

However, the results of these studies have not been used in the industry as much as they could be. Optimalon Software is proud to announce a new product that bridges the gap between science and the production environment.

"Almost everybody knows Microsoft Excel," affirms Denis Smirnov, marketing director of Optimalon Software. "It's an application which has been successfully used by hundreds of millions users around the globe as an inventory, financial and order processing tool. Our new product - 1DCutX - brings the length cutting optimization functionality into Excel. It makes the complex numerical optimization so simple and intuitive that anyone can do it in a couple of minutes."

1DCutX works with Excel and saves all the data within the workbooks effectively eliminating any potential errors. Users may choose to minimize either waste or both waste and cost. Additional parameters, such as saw kerf and minimal waste size, help users account for the features and limitations of the utilized cutting hardware.